ASX 200 rises over 1% at open; Megaport up 21%

Highlights:

• ASX 200 stocks witnessed a jump at the market open, pushed by the NASDAQ Composite that gained 2.9% in its last session.
• Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe, in a speech today, has stated that cash rate would not peak too high.
• Lowe also informed that RBA’s inflation target should hover between 2-3%.

ASX 200 opened up in green after major US stocks registered strong earnings. The S&P/ASX200 gained 80.20 points or 1.21% to climb to 6,729.80 points at 10:23 AM AEST. The top performing stock in this index was, Megaport Limited that skyrocketed more than 21%, followed by Zip Co Limited, up more than 9%. 

Over the last five days, the index has gained 1.63%, but is down 9.60% on Y-T-D basis. 7 of 11 sectors are on gaining spree with the energy sector advacning 6.02% followed by Utilities and Information Technology.

Meanwhile, in a speech in Sydney, Reserve Bank of Australia chief Philip Lowe has stated that policy makers have to derive ways to bring the inflation rate back to 2-3% that will help economy to grow and curb unemployment.

Top Gainers and Losers

Top gainers feature Megaport up 22.411%, Zip gaining 9.322%, Tyro Payments up 9.022%, Magellan Financial advancing 9.011% followed by Pointsbet gaining 8.7%.

Top losers feature Allkem down 4.3%, Perseus Mining down 1.947% followed by Pendal down 1.8% and NIB Holdings trading 1.2% lower.   

News Makers

• Plenti Group Limited (ASX:PLT) – The stock was quoted at AU$0.655, up 3.9% at 10:09 AM AEST. The diversified financials company informed today that its loan portfolio has risen to AU$1.44 billion in June quarter. Also, the company has clocked revenue of AU$30.5 million.
• Bubs Australia Limited (ASX:BUB) – This food and beverage stock was 5.6% higher at AU$0.565 per share at 10:48 AM AEST. BUB’s gross revenue in last three months has touched AU$48.1 million, up 278%, full year 2022 sales went up 123% to AU$104.2 million.
• Megaport Limited (ASX:MP1) – The software and services giant was 20.247% higher at AU$7.780 per share at 11:00 AM AEST as it has reported profit in earnings in fourth quarter. The revenue has risen 10% to AU$30.6 million, EBITDA stands at AU$1 million, customers increased by 4%.
• Allkem Limited (ASX:AKE) – The Materials firm was trading 4% down at AU$9.340 per share at 11:00 AM AEST. The company has earned record revenue of US$337 million in June quarter.

Global equity Indices

Wall Street witnessed an upbeat trend as important stocks surged after sharing their strong earnings reports, suggestive of the fact that US firms are well-positioned to tackle rising inflation and supply-chain concerns.

The S&P 500 gained 2.76% to finish on highest level since 9 June 2022. Dow Jones gained 2.43% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 3.11%. US sectors kept buzzing in the green territory, with seven out of eleven sectors gaining over 3%.

Dow futures witnessed higher level trading after some major stocks shared upbeat earnings triggering investor sentiment.

Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) gained more than 7% after coming up with its earnings featuring second quarter EPS at US$3.2 against the expected US$2.96. Revenues stood at US$7.97 billion and the company reported that it has lost 970k subscribers in the given quarter, better than the 2 million that it expected.

Other stocks like Interactive Brokers Group Inc (NASDAQ:IBKR), Omnicom Group Inc (NYSE:OMC) Hasbro Inch (NASDAQ:HAS) also gained momentum riding high on strong earnings.  

US dollar gained more than 1%, nearing 69 US cents.

Commodities:

Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Wednesday that UAE and Saudi Arabia were extending help to mediate between Russia and Ukraine. Putin has also met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to talk about a deal that might result in Ukraine resuming Black Sea grain exports, now guarded by Russia.

As the war drags further, there are increased worries regarding Russia’s supplies of natural gas to Europe.

Meanwhile, Oil and Gold have witnessed a rise while iron ore and copper have shed slightly.

Oil prices gained around 1% on Tuesday on tight supplies and weaker dollar woes.

At 10:18 AM AEST, Crude Oil WTI was quoted at US$100.30/bbl while Brent was at US$107.12/bbl.

Gold was at US$1709.50 an ounce at 10:19 AM AEST.